Matsumoto + Lake Suwa – Feb ’24: part three

It doesn’t really warrant a part three, but the last post was picture heavy, so I’ve split it.

Before breakfast I went down to the onsen and it was just me!

Breakfast was amazing. The lady was talking to me, asking about what I eat/don’t eat and said that it was helpful eating katsuo dashi. So, if you can be flexible in Japan, they can usually offer you something inline with what you can eat – it’s a different debate about whether you should have to be flexible but I will be, so it was good enough for me.

We ...

Matsumoto + Lake Suwa – Feb ’24: part one

We spent a few days in Nagano and very pleasant it was, but really cold. The people were very friendly – I don’t want to offend but compared to Tokyo (and I know it’s because it’s a capital city, they are the same everywhere), extremely friendly.

We took the Azusa train from Tachikawa at 8:24 and arrived in Matsumoto at 10:37. It was full, so I’m glad we booked and didn’t just roll up on the day like we had planned.

We stayed at Hotel 168 aka Iroha (if you know Japanese, you’ll get it). I didn’t, my husband had ...

国内旅行: Tokyo to Hagi 5of6

It was a buffet breakfast at the hotel which had a section for making your own seafood rice-bowl. There was lots of choice but slim-pickings for the veggies.

Today saw us whizzing along on the train straight-across the middle of Japan, from west to east. It was still very snowy in places.

We arrived in Kurashiki which has the beautiful Bikan Historical Quarter. The overcast day only seemed to highlight that. It was crowded and this was off-season in early Feb, so be warned if you are going.

First stop was to Ohara Museum of Art. It was crowded but ...

may memories and june wish list 2022

nishinohama beach

We’re already at the halfway mark of the year. How has it been so far for everyone? The world seems a bit dark at the moment but I hope you’re managing to find some happiness amongst the gloom.

may memories

tateyama snowy landscape

We took a bus trip along the Kurobe Alpen Route and you can see the tour linked here (name in Japanese if the link gets taken down is: 新宿[都庁]発】迫力満点!絶景の立山黒部アルペンルート「雪の大谷ウォーク」と世界遺産・白川郷&飛騨高山2日間).

hagi pink sunset

Not long after, we went to Hagi for Golden Week. We enjoyed lazy days, eating and spending time in air cleaner (hopefully, but who knows) than Tokyo.

gyosen park

Other than that, since ...

do you ever wonder…?

The photos of the snow are of no relevance to the text, so if it’s a snow story you’re after, turn back now.  I just felt I needed to try and make my words a little less soul destroying.

What you are doing with your life?  I’m sick of that question!  It seems to be everyones favourite thing to ask at the moment.  Everyone defines themselves by the job they do and I just find that so depressing.  More depressing than that though is that I do it as well!  I hate being asked what I do but I invariably ...